Hunter
Angela wandered, without either a direction or a destination in mind as she hovered above the forest floor under the light of a full moon, moving between the trees at a slow pace. The wraith was in no hurry to be anywhere. It wasn't like she had anywhere to be, but she was fine with that. All she wanted then was a few moments to clear her head of the thoughts that plagued her. In contrast to her leisurely pace, Angela's mind was running along at a hundred miles an hour, mostly with thoughts concerning the recent nightmare.
Isn't one of the Princesses supposed to help with that? If so, then it would seem that someone's slacking off on the job, she thought bitterly as she pondered the details of her frightening vision. Angela normally wasn't one to put much stock in visions and prophetic dreams and other such nonsense, but she was already in a land populated by multi-colored tiny talking horses while in the body of a creature from a video game, so why shouldn't she be having visions on top of that? It wasn't like they could make her situation any more complicated than it already was. Not when the ponies might know about her existence or when she entered brief spats of vicious insanity whenever she got hungry. Compared to all that, bad dreams reminding her of her guilty past were just icing on the cake.
They certainly didn't help though, and Angela got the feeling that, whether she believed in those kinds of things or not, the dream was supposed to mean something. And it didn't take much thought to guess what it was.
When Angela had first awoken in the body of a wraith, she had of course been somewhat pleased by the change, even if she wasn't necessarily asked permission first. She would have obviously liked it if that old man back at the convention had bothered to mention some of the finer details of their arrangement, and she certainly could have done without the pain involved in the transformation, but she was willing to put that behind her. It at least kept her from being arrested. But that was not the only reason why Angela had initially been so ecstatic by the change.
She had thought that finally, after years of bearing a tremendous amount of guilt and regret for what she had done, she had at last been able to escape from it all. She thought that she had finally found a way to live without her actions hanging over her head like a shadow. She would have even put up with the hunger spells and the ponies if it meant that she could have her peace of mind.
But it was apparently not to be. Like a black mark on her soul it had followed her across dimensions, breaking through to the front of her mind so that it was that she could think about, all that she could see.
Murderer.
Angela let her head sag as that single word rang in her mind again, and she felt as though she were carrying a sack of bricks over her shoulders.
I can't do this.
Angela slowed to a complete stop, hovering in place as she looked down at a little puddle of water that had accumulated on the ground. The wraith stared back at her in silence, and for a brief moment Angela just sat there watching her reflection. High above, a stray cloud drifted past, temporarily blotting out the moonlight as the former human remembered events from her previous life.
No one was meant to die that night.
The owner of the jewelry store was supposed to have been at home. He wasn't supposed to have forgotten his wallet on the counter.
He had tackled her to the ground, and a gun that had been hidden within the folds of his coat had slipped loose.
She should have just given up. She should have just let the police take her away. At least that way he might have still been alive.
I'm sorry. . . . I'm so sorry, she whispered quietly, her thoughts unheard in the night. But Angela knew that no matter how much she apologized, it would do absolutely nothing to fix her mistakes. Barely noticing, Angela drifted down to the ground, where she wept in the raspy voice of the wraith, not caring who or what happened to see. Angela simply laid there, her pale form heaving slightly with every stuttered breath.
She was afraid.
She was afraid of what she had been. She was afraid of what she was now. And she was afraid of what she might become in the future, of how much easier it would be to kill for something as simple as hunger. If she could not control herself, then she was a danger everything around her.
Letting her gaze drift upward, Angela spotted the city on the mountain, finally remembering that it was called Canterlot, glowing like a beacon in the darkness. Tiny pinpricks of orange light reflected off its glistening white walls. And she imagined all of the little ponies going about their business, never even suspecting what was hiding in the forest a few dozen miles to their North. Never knowing of the danger she posed to them. And she would rather keep it that way.
She had to leave. She had go away, to find someplace so remote she wouldn't ever get the chance to cause serious harm to the ponies. The only question was in which direction she would go. The most that she knew regarding the land of Equestria was that Canterlot was right in the middle somewhere, with Ponyville just a train ride South. As far as she knew there was not much else to the North aside from the Crystal Empire, and that could be avoided easily enough.
Her decision made, Angela picked herself up off of the ground, not even bothering to brush herself off, and angled herself away from the city on the mountain, and floated away in a straight line. She no longer cared where she ended up. All she cared about then was getting as far away as possible.
A short while into her journey of self imposed exile, Angela became aware of something in her gut telling that something was not quite right. She tried to simply ignore the feeling and continue on her way, but it quickly returned stronger than before. She was not sure why, but something was not quite right. She listened carefully as she moved along, before she realized what was out of place.
Everything was suddenly unnaturally quiet, and this time it wasn't because of her. Even when she was around there was always at least the chirping of birds and insects, but now there was nothing coming from them. Something in the woods was causing the whole area to fall utterly silent.
Angela slowed to a complete stop, and she felt the short spines on her back bristle slightly in anticipation of trouble. What that trouble was she could not tell, but whatever else was out there was setting her on edge. There was something weird going on here, and she did not like it one bit.
Tightening her focus, Angela attempted to utilize some of the more fine-tuned senses that she now possessed in a bid to locate what was causing the tense silence. She could not see or hear or smell anything that would give her a clue, but that only served to heighten her state of alertness. She may have been able to detect anything, mostly as a result of her inexperience, but she knew for a fact that her instincts were telling her that she was being watched by unfriendly eyes.
Deciding that she did not like the feeling in the slightest, Angela pondered going a different route. It was not a particularly hard decision, and Angela angled herself to move backward while still being able to keep a metaphorical eye out for any trouble in front of her. This action unfortunately kept her from seeing a small metallic object come whistling out of the darkened boughs of the tree straight towards her. The object bounced harmlessly off of her shoulder, before it it exploded in a deafening flash of blinding light.
Angela shrieked, although it was more out of surprise and confusion rather than pain, as the attack had done very little in the way of actually harming her. She was still startled by it however.
What the hell?! she exclaimed as she recovered from the attack, trying to locate where what she assumed was a flash grenade of some sort had come from. She crouched low to the ground, glancing all around in search of her aggressor.
Several tense seconds passed before another grenade came flying at her out of the gloom. However this one came from a different area, and Angela was caught off guard again as it burst near her head. She hissed loudly as she felt her anger rise at the unprovoked attack, suspecting that those ponies might be behind it. The sound of her displeasure reverberated through the trees, alerting everything within earshot to her building fury.
Well isn't this is just great, she mused bitterly. I try to leave and now they decide to show up.
Her thought was interrupted as yet another grenade exploded, and Angela shrieked loudly. She tried to guess where her attacker was hiding, and struck at the branches of a nearby tree with her scythe-claws. The limbs of the tree snapped and leaves were sent tumbling down to the ground, and Angela felt that she had least scared off her attacker. Unfortunately she was incorrect in that assumption, as another grenade detonated at her back.
Leave me alone! she shouted in her mind as she let a fury filled screech escape her maw. She was starting to feel herself slip back into a state of mindless rage as a result of the disorienting flashes of sound and light, but she made sure to keep herself in check. It would not do to let herself be consumed by her anger. But that was proving be increasingly difficult as the explosions continued, and she felt that if it went on for much longer she would become both deaf and insane. She was extremely tempted to just start knocking down trees left and right, but she reigned herself in, knowing that would only aggravate her further. What she needed to do was wait for her aggressor to give itself away.
Begrudgingly Angela sat motionless, her senses straining to pick up even the slightest sound. Seconds passed that seemed like hours, but she was quickly rewarded when she detected the faint rustle of tree branches to her right. Wasting no time, Angela ignored the the grenade that was thrown at her, and dashed towards a tall pine tree, shrieking in anger and fury. She slammed into it with her shoulder, and with an audible crack the tree began to topple over. But just before it hit the ground Angela saw a small creature dive away from the falling pine at the last second, emitting a hawk like screech before landing a number of yards away from her.
Angela focused her vision to see what was so determined to destroy her hearing, and was taken somewhat by surprise when she saw that it was not a pony at all, but a griffon instead, with faded blue feathers and light gray fur. It seemed to be wearing a brown leather vest of some sort that looked custom made to fit around the bases of its wings. She also noticed the hilt of a large knife protruding from a sheath hanging over its flank, and Angela realized, both to her annoyance and amusement strangely enough, that the griffon was a hunter of some sort.
She would have laughed at the sheer irony of the situation if not for the small thread of worry that wormed its way into her mind.
Okay. So now I'm being hunted by a griffon. Well that's just swell.
The griffon recovered from its unscheduled dive to escape the falling tree, before quickly realizing that it was at the receiving end of an eyeless glare from a predator as big as a dragon. It let out a surprised squawk before reaching into one of the many pockets on its vest with a clawed foreleg before procuring another grenade. At this point Angela wondered why it even bothered with that option anymore, as she had already found it out. She did not have very long to ponder it however when the griffon threw it at her.
Angela was almost tempted to let it hit her to show that she knew it would do nothing to harm her. The griffon was probably counting on her being like every other semi-intelligent beast and be scared of it. But she then figured that she'd had enough of those damned things blowing up in her face, and swatted the grenade aside with the back of her clawed hand. It flew a considerable distance before it detonated, and a faint boom echoed through the pines.
When the griffon saw this, the feathers around its neck stood out on end from what Angela guessed was intimidation. She simply stared at the hybrid for a few tense moments, no doubt looking unamused to it, and for a brief span of seconds that felt more like minutes the two would be adversaries just gazed at each other, one out of intimidation, the other from annoyance. Then Angela decided to break the silence with a loud and threatening hiss, to which the griffon responded by taking a cautious step backward.
Angela's instincts were telling her to pursue it, to tear it apart for attacking her. She might have even been justified in seeking a little revenge, but she did not give in. She knew that once she started going down that road, it would be very hard to stop herself, provided she could even do at all.
Hissing at it again, Angela turned away and began to resume her previous course. Behind her the griffon gaped at the fact that it was being blown off by its own quarry.
"Oy! Get back here beastie!" he commanded, alerting Angela to his displeasure at being ignored after all that effort he had spent, but the wraith continued to float away. She even flicked one of her tails at him in an unmistakable display of disinterest. The griffon spluttered, completely flabbergasted by the way the way he was being treated. And he wasn't going to have any of it. Removing the large serrated knife from its sheath, the griffon took to the air and made a beeline straight for the wraith. Angela heard the attack coming but was unable to react in time as she felt the knife pierce the flesh around her neck, in the same spot where she was bitten by the lupis-minor. It was no worse than a bee sting, but it hurt none-the-less.
Angela shrieked, more out of anger than pain, and promptly shook the bird off. She was already furious that she had been attacked unprovoked, and she only became even more incensed by the fact that the little nuisance was not going to leave her alone anytime soon.
That's it! she exclaimed angrily as she whirled around to face the griffon, and she snarled viciously while she crouched down. In her mind, the only way she was going to be rid of it was to chase it off. She would try to hold back a little, so she would not lose her already precarious hold on her sanity, but she could not guarantee that there would not be at least some injury involved.
The griffon saw her crouch, and promptly sheathed his knife before quickly flying away in the opposite direction.
Angela shrieked and gave chase, knocking over whatever happened to be in her way.
"You idiot!"
Even though they had moved their "conversation" into her office, Mayor Quartz shouting could be heard by anypony that happened to be trotting by her two story house.
"How could you have lost him?! Do you have any idea what could happen to him out there?! Seriously, do you have any clue?! How about I go ahead and remind you! Wolves. Mountain lions. Bears. Lupis-minors. Hydras. And that's just the stuff we know about! And now you come to tell me that there's not only something out there that might be even bigger and meaner than the bug bear ever could be, but that you left Harp out there all alone with it?!"
"How long has she been going on like this now?" Nightshade whispered as she leaned her head closer to Mortar.
"A good five minutes now," the large stallion answered in a similar tone.
"Shhh!" Star hissed between her teeth, silencing them as they continued to watch Roughshod receive the tongue lashing of a lifetime from Mayor Quartz. They would have stepped in to defend him, but none of them wanted her wrath to include them just yet. They would get their lecture in due time, so for the moment they stood behind Roughshod near the door to the office, like children awaiting punishment.
Quartz put a hoof to her forehead, appearing to calm down only slightly as she breathed a heavy sigh.
"Roughshod," she began again. "You are a good friend. And I know that you never intended for this to happen. I know that you must already be beating yourself up about it, but dammit Roughshod! You're better than this! We both know that!"
Roughshod said nothing, but continued to take the verbal punishment with a grim expression. And like the mayor said, everypony knew that despite his stoic outward appearance, he felt horribly guilty for failing to notice when Harp had gone missing. It was a feeling that everypony else shared with him.
"Well. . . what do we do?" Nightshade asked, speaking up for the first time since they returned. Quartz's hard glare settled on the dark pegasus briefly, causing her to shrink under the elder mares gaze.
"Right now?" she questioned. "Right now there is nothing we can do. Don't you make a mistake, any of you. There is almost nothing I would like more than to kick the lot of you outside the wall right now and not let you in until you find Harp." This earned Quartz more than a few nervous glances from the guilty ponies. "But as much as I would like to go ahead and do that, Harp is just going to have to hold out until morning before we can go get him. May Celestia watch over him in the mean time."
Quartz's glare had softened slightly as she said those words. However it hardened again when directed her attention back to the earth pony stallion currently standing in front of her desk.
"What am I going to do with you Roughshod?" she questioned with a sigh as she rubbed her head with a hoof. Everypony present suspected that it was more of a rhetorical question than anything else and kept silent as they waited for the mayor to make her decision. A long minute passed with no further conversation until Quartz fixed Roughshod with a hard expression. She opened her mouth to speak, but then faltered as she seemed to have difficulty saying the words on her mind.
She eventually was able to get a hold of herself and said in a stern voice, "Roughshod."
Roughshod's jaw was slightly clenched as he replied. "Yes ma'am?"
Quartz paused to take a breath before saying, "I am afraid that this kind of negligence is not something that I can simply ignore. In light of this unfortunate event I am going to have to recommend that you no longer act as a guard for the wall until further notice. The same goes for the rest of you."
when they all heard the mayors verdict, everypony behind Roughshod gasped quietly. They all knew that they had screwed up, but they didn't think that Quartz would go so far as to ban them from the wall.
"But mayor," Star Mix exclaimed, speaking up for the first time since they returned. "You can't do that. there needs to be at least somepony on the wall to keep watch and-"
"I am aware of that," Quartz interrupted. "Do note, this is not a permanent decision. I simply feel that a little time away from your regular duties will give you ample time to consider the consequences of your actions. I will still allow you to be part of the rescue party to go find Harp, but for now it might be for the best if you all just go home and take some time off."
Star was about to say something to the mayor, but was cut off again, this time by Roughshod as he raised a hoof, effectively silencing her.
"Ma'am," he said, his tone even and betraying no emotion. "I respect your decision, and I will abide by it." Turning his head to glance at the other ponies in the room he added, "We all will. I only hope that you will be willing to forgive us soon."
"I'm not the only one you are going to have to apologize to for this," Quartz answered. Everypony knew she was referring to Harp when she said, and their ears drooped slightly as they realized that it was unlikely he would survive the night. When it appeared that nopony else was willing to speak, Quartz sighed heavily, waved a hoof at them and said in a tired sounding voice, "You're dismissed. Go home, all of you."
Everypony shuffled their hooves, unsure who should be the first to leave, before they eventually filed out of the mayors office. In a few minutes they were all standing in front of her house, with only a few lanterns and the moon to illuminate their surroundings.
"Well I feel horrible," Nightshade proclaimed, to which nopony answered except to give a slow nod in agreement. "I don't know about the rest of you guys," she added, "but I'm gonna take the mayors suggestion and head home and have a drink. Maybe break into my stash of the hard stuff in Harp's memory."
This earned the mare more than a few disapproving glares from her companions. "What?" she said.
"How can you say that Nightshade, especially now of all times?" Star demanded. "He's not dead yet as far as we know."
"Exactly. As far as we know," Nightshade countered. "I mean for all we do know he might already be dead. He could be out there right now with his limbs torn off like the bug bear. For all we know his bones might already be being used as toothpicks!"
"That's enough Nightshade!" Roughshod ordered loudly, almost yelling his disapproval. "You're not the only one here who's torn up inside about all this, but you don't see us drowning ourselves in cider."
Nightshade ears drooped and she withered slightly under the stallions harsh glare, unable to make eye contact with him. "Sorry," she muttered under her breath. When she said that however everypony noticed that there was an undercurrent of of anguish and guilt in her voice, and her violet eyes betrayed her feeling as they began to glisten slightly. Mister Mortar stepped over to try and comfort the mare, and he was about to say something when Nightshade stopped with an outstretched hoof.
"Look," she said, "I just need some time to be alone alright? You don't need to worry about me. Just give me a little bit, and we'll just go back in the morning." Without waiting for an answer Nightshade turned around and spread her wings, and took off without another word. She flew low to the ground, hovering just above the cobblestone street.
"I'll make sure she gets home safe," Mortar announced before hurrying to catch up with her, leaving Roughshod and Star Mix standing alone in front of the mayors door, with only a few street lamps and the moon to illuminate their surrounding. Roughshod then turrned to walk away, presumably back home to Rose Flare. Star chose to follow beside him.
"Are you doing alright?" She asked after a few minutes of walking in silence. Her tone was inquisitive, yet there was an unmistakable trace of concern laced through it.
"I will be," Roughshod answered as he continued walking, the sound of his hooves clicking on the hard stone echoing among the buildings. The two were silent as they walked, neither one willing to speak up just yet. They were alone for the most part, as many ponies had chosen to turn in for the night. There were a few stragglers still milling about, either ushering young fillies and colts who were up too late back inside or just watching the night pass them by.
"So," Star said, her voice startlingly loud in the quiet of night. "What are we going to do now?"
Roughshod did not answer for a moment as he pondered just what he was going to do now he was temporarily no longer permitted to patrol the wall, but at the moment he was stumped. He supposed he could try asking Mister Mortar if he could help on the rock farm, or maybe see if the ponies that worked in the orchard needed assistance. However he doubted either one of those would give him the same satisfaction he got out of making sure that his home and his family was safe for another night.
"I'm not sure Star," he said, finally answering her question. "I gave up a lot of myself to be up there, and as much as I hope the mayor finds somepony to replace us, I don't think Quartz is going have an easy time doing so."
"What do you mean by that?" Star asked.
Roughshod sighed quietly before responding. "Star, you and I both know that almost nopony in this town is as willing to go up on the wall. You've seen how they act. They flinch every time somepony even mentions the bug bear, and now that we know that there is another monster out there, well, I wouldn't hold out much hope that Quartz is going to find somepony willing to patrol the wall anytime soon. She is putting the entire towns safety at risk just to teach us a lesson."
"Roughshod-" Star began to say, only to be cut off when the stallion stopped walking and turned to look at her directly. He then said in a slightly strained voice that was uncharacteristic for him, "And you know what Star? It's my fault. I didn't notice that Harp had gone missing until it was too late, and now he's out there wih who knows what prowling around, and it's all my fault."
"Roughshod, Just listen to yourself," Star interrupted, growing frustrated with the stallion. "Your piling all of this blame onto yourself, when the rest us could have just as easily been responsible, and for what? Because you were "in charge?" Because you were the one who wanted to go out there in the first place? Well guess what. We are the ones who chose to go with you, when none of us wanted to. We knew what we could be getting into. We knew that thee was going to be a risk involved, but we went anyway. And do you know why?"
Roughshod was not ale to reply when Star continued to speak. "Because we knew that in the long run, getting off of our plots and going out there to ensure the safety of our home was a lot better than just sitting at home in the so-called security behind the wall. You knew that. I knew that. Even Harp knew that. That's why we followed you Roughshod."
Star paused to take a short breath, then said in a milder tone, "Roughshod, you can't keep doing this to yourself. You can't just decide that you should be the one to take all the blame, when we all know that everypony else is accountable."
Roughshod did not answer. He was not sure how to after Star Mix's monologue. When it seemed to the mare that no reply was going to be forthcoming, Star turned on her hooves and said to him, "Now, I'm going to go home and star getting ready to head out. Harp will be waiting for us, and we want to be out at first light if we want to find him. I suggest you do the same."
The emerald unicorn started to trot away, but then stopped and called back to him over her shoulder, "And Roughshod? Just think about what I said, will you?"
Roughshod was silent for a moment as he contemplated her words. He was about to answer her, when suddenly his ears flicked in response to a noise in the distance. Star reacted to it in much the same way, and when she looked at him Roughshod saw something in her eyes that he had not seen ever since the first reports of the bug bear started coming in.
Fear.
They had both heard it. It was faint though, and the only reason they were even able to detect it was because it had been carried by the wind. But both ponies instantly recognized it as the sound of an anger filled shriek echoed throughout the town.
I've just noticed that, as I was writing this, Star Mix seems to be a pretty big voice of reason for the other ponies. I wonder how she would help Angela with her issues?
And another thing I thought of while writing this chapter is that I have yet to have any sort of actual confrontation between Angela and the ponies, and got worried that you all might be getting bored with how slowly things seem to be progressing. My only explanation is that I like to take the time to get to actually know my characters a little bit before I have them start going for each others throats. I hope you all don't mind, it's just the way I write.
That said, things are going to heat up a bit in the next chapter.
As always, alert me to ay mistakes and errors in the comments. It really helps a lot.
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hmm...what if she purposefully chooses to not kill him in front of everyone and spares his life? ....maybe he can loose a few limbs or so, but if she spares his life, they would see that she isnt a senseless beast, and would probably stop sending hunters after her..
Nice
Oh you tease I thought we wereally about to get to the real good stuff. Well the wait continues.
6558561 Next chapter. I promise.
Seems to be something off here.
Taking off his tail is suitably drastic for a non magical flier. He can't makes sharp turns, or many of the various moves that RD shows off in the show. It would be akin to cutting the tail plane off of a biplane. It could still get up into the air, but it would be forced to make wide turns rather than the tighter turns in comparison to a jet that they are known for. Of course, it's a small quick moving target, so a wing would be easier. It would also ground him, and let Angela literally fly off to do whatever she wanted to.
griffon hunter will lead her to the village where she will kill him, realise that shes in a village and flee.
I am okay with the speed of the story so far
maim the birdie and drop him off at tia's front door
6558618 Thanks for catching that.
6559285 No problem.
I'm kinda thinkin that Harp's gonna find Bon Bon and that he'll make it out okay.
I like how you made a griffin a trapper and talks like Griffin the trapper from the game :P
I can already tell this is going to be a story where i end up saltier than the dead sea at the stupidity of civilisation
I have noticed a few words within this chapter where you appear to have missed a letter. One example being:
Damn, girl, you totally read my mind!
8572416
And now because you said that Luna is going to give you nightmares.
Bloody Idiot